Pink Floyd: Comfortably Numb Meaning

Song Released: 1980

Comfortably Numb Lyrics

Hello.
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home?

Come on, now.
I hear you’re feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain,
Get you on your feet again.

Relax.
I need some information first.
Just the...

1. anonymous

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   May 30th 2006 !⃝

   I'm guessing he means that when he was a child he had dreams of actually becoming someone, but that ended and now he's on drugs. Hes so depressed,that he takes the drugs, they make him comfortably numb?........

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
2. Boogieman481

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   May 24th 2006 !⃝

   Don't think too much into this song. Roger Waters said in an interview about the song, "I think it's funny how everyone thinks so much about 'comfortably numb'. It was actually all written about a time when I was a child and got a horrible fever. I got rushed to the doctor and after him shining lights in my eyes and making sure I was coherant, he jabbed me with a shot of something. Then I got better."
3. anonymous

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   May 23rd 2006 !⃝

   I've always considered this songa about electric shock treatment.
   
   here in new zealand we had really shocking stuff in the mental hospitals, like they use to give ect to paitence who were miss-behaving and just because they [mental health wardens] didn't like them.
   
   its just my knowledge about ect that makes me feel like there is a connection, especially since the amound of insanity in pink floyd.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
4. anonymous

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   May 13th 2006 !⃝

   I smoked this weed that must have been laced with something and I got a lot of it. I'm pissed about it but, I just let it because I heard from my favorite band this song and it was rediculous and it was pure coincidence that it was on when I was in my (different) high. the pin prick, nothing to do with the needle used heroin. From beggining of the track to the end of it, its all about roger waters being high on something, from the voices in the beggining to the feeling sick, it is about whatever I had and it was rediculous, I can't explain it, like in the song. It fit my experices right on. I smoked a grav bong and so I got a good amount of it and I know weed, this wasnt it. I'm not doing it again but the experience I had, it was something else. just because of the song

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. anonymous

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   May 3rd 2006 !⃝

   This is my interpretation of the song, broken down verse by verse or line by line as appropriate.
   
   Hello... Is there anybody in there?
   Just nod if you can hear me
   Is there anyone home?
   
   Someone, probably a doctor, is talking to Pink (perhaps a reference to Syd Barrett's descent into insanity, but probably a reference to the fact that Pink is in a semi-catatonic state and is withdrawing from the world.)
   
   Come on, now, I hear you're feeling down I can ease the pain get you on your feet again
   Relax, I need some information first
   just the basic facts
   can you tell me where it hurts?
   
   Pretty self explanatory - he isn't responsive, they are going to shoot him up with a drug to get him to the point where he (Pink) is capable of performing
   
   There is no pain you are receding
   A distant ship's smoke on the horizon
   You are only coming through in waves
   Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
   
   This paragraph refers to Pink's state of mind - he isn't feeling pain, the world around him is becoming more distant, more hazy, less real as Pink withdraws farther from the real world. The reference to the ship smoke is simply a poetic reference to the way Pink is viewing the "real" world - it is drifting away from him.
   
   When I was a child I had a fever
   My hands felt just like two balloons
   Now I have that feeling once again
   I can't explain, you would not understand This is not how I am.
   
   This paragraph seems to be, first, a reference to what many of us probably remember from childhood - being sick with a high fever your head and body can start to feel hollow, for lack of a better term. It feels almost like a dissociative experience. Sometimes when I am in a position of EXTREME stress that same feeling overcomes me. Pink is making a reference to the fact that he is feeling disassociated with the world yet that really isn't who he is - the constant pressures of stardom have changed him.
   
   I have become comfortably numb.
   
   His state of withdrawal has made him numb to the world.
   
   Okay, just a little pinprick
   There'll be no more AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH
   But you may feel a little sick
   
   Can you stand up? I do believe it's working good that'll keep you going for the show, come on it's time to go
   
   Nothing more than a reference to the fact that the doctors/concert producers/etc. don't give a f*** about the performer, they just want to get him on stage.
   
   There is no pain you are receding
   A distant ship's smoke on the horizon
   You are only coming through in waves
   Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
   
   When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse Out of the corner of my eye I turned to look but it was gone I cannot put my finger on it now The child is grown, the dream is gone
   
   This one leaves me a little puzzled. The best interpretation I have is that when Waters was a child, he experienced a fleeting glimpse of the promise and happiness of life - but his father was killed in the war, stripping Waters of the innocence and happiness of childhood before Waters had a chance to experience it. Now he is a jaded adult, the innocence of youth is gone and was never really experienced, the dreams he had as a youth are gone - and to escape this rather tragic reality, he has withdrawn into a semi-catatonic state where he does not have to face reality.
6. EmosSuck777

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   Apr 27th 2006 !⃝

   Well, I haven't read all the responses, but most of them are completely off.
   
   Yes, you must watch The Wall. It was about something that happened to Waters during an Animals tour. He had bad stomach pain and was given a tranquilizer that was way too strong for him. Since it was a traumatic experience for him, he included it in The Wall which is about how being a rock star sucks and Pink is a combo of himself and Syd Barrett.
7. Ssheska77

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   Apr 21st 2006 !⃝

   Okay, I used to hang out with some really hardcore Pink Floyd fans in high school. The real interpretation of this song is about the Founding member of Pink Floyd 'Sid Barrett' He did like way too many hits of acid in his day and is now on a lifelong trip. He lives in his mother's basement somewhere in England. The members of Floyd even recorded him after his tragedy and let him make an album. So crazy, he sings 'I see the flys, the hoppy bird', so when it says 'Hello, Hello is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me'. They are speaking of poor old Sid. The some of 'The Wall' was based on Sids follys also....
8. anonymous

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   Apr 18th 2006 !⃝

   I agree with the winter guy, I know this song is about Morphine, the lyrics describe the nausea, and it just all makes sense. Him becoming numb from morphine, not heroine
9. anonymous

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   Apr 11th 2006 !⃝

   Last interpretation, I think, says it all. Makes a lot of sense. Takes the mysteriousness and fun out of the song though. Thanks a lot dude!

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
10. anonymous

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    Mar 13th 2006 !⃝

    Couple of Facts:
    
    Roger Waters suffered/suffers from diabetes since childhood.
    
    Common Symptoms of Diabetes:
    
    Numbness
    Fatigue
    Nausea or Vomiting
    
    Many times children with type 1 diabetes find out they have it after getting sick.
    
    
    
    
    
    The beginning of the song is someone, a doctor perhaps talking to Roger Waters and goes on to gather the proper information about his current condition.
    
    A common side affect of having diabetes is numbness and if you go without insulin you go into a very lucid state.
    
    Then he reflects upon growing up and being first hit with the condition and how he is going through that same thing again and that he usually is okay with the condition. The comfortably numb line I think is about the constant pricking of the finger in order to check glucose levels and he doesn't even feel it anymore.
    
    Now the distant ship line that he refers to twice I think is the close call with death. At the end of the song he goes on to say that when he had the fever and almost died he got very close to seeing the end and then he woke up and thought it all was a dream.
11. anonymous

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    Mar 1st 2006 !⃝

    I have to agree with the last Anon, music before the movie and who wouldn't think drugs were involved. But it's not doing drugs for the trip, he needed a push to get on with the show. I also think it is a fading away from reality and a mental withdrawl. He wanted to be numb to the rest of the world and did not want to face it any longer.
12. anonymous

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    Feb 19th 2006 !⃝

    Ok, guys stop thinking of the movie for god's sake. The song is about becoming numb to everything around himself. In fact the whole album is about the progresstion to his insanity. This song is simply one stage. The movie was after the music people and its hard to show a person simply going insane so they used symbolisim(sorry about the spelling issue)
13. sharon_hate

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    Jan 22nd 2006 !⃝

    The song is in fact about heroin. Not that it isn't obvious already, but I'll quote wikipedia who confirms it.
    
    "The lyrics refer to The Wall's protagonist Pink, finally burned out and passed out in his hotel room, being drugged to enable him to perform. The verses, sung by Waters, are the words of the doctor treating Pink, while the chorus, sung by Gilmour, is Pink's hazy vision and thoughts."

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
14. Tommy

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    Jan 17th 2006 !⃝

    The song is actually about an actual event that happened to Roger Waters. He was drained but still had to perform and a doctor gave him a really stong hit of adreniline (sorry if its spelt wrong) to "keep you going for the show."
15. Wintermut3

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    Jan 4th 2006 !⃝

    Heroin? maybe not... I'd bet Morphine.
    
    The song even DESCRIBES the physical side-effects of Morphine ("Just a little pinprick/ but you may feel a little sick" may refer to the fact morphine and other opiates usually make you feel nauseous).
    
    In my opinion it's about a doctor that gives a performer painkillers (probably an opiate) to keep him on stage and performing. The descriptions of Morphine's effects are very accurate, I was given the stuff after shattering my foot in a sports accident and I remember CONCIOUSLY thinking how much it reminded me of dear old Floyd.

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